National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People

Nation’s Leading Cross-Disability Advocate

For more than 20 years, National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People (NCPEDP) has been on the front lines of making change happen, towards the betterment of lives of persons with disabilities.

 

NCPEDP aims to work with the Government, Industry, International Agencies, NGOs, DPOs, as well as, directly with people with disabilities including children and youth to holistically engage and influence policy and public opinion.

 

Working with a post-CRPD mandate, NCPEDP aims to review and synchronize national legislation to be in line with the United Nations Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Over the years, NCPEDP has pushed to move beyond the charity approach, and has strived to educate and create awareness on the social model of disability, through its 6 focus areas of

  1. Education.
  2. Employment
  3. Accessibility
  4. Legislation/Policy
  5. Awareness/ Communication
  6. Youth

NCPEDP partners with disabled activists and experts across the country, through its National Disability Network (NDN) and The National Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (NCRPD), in order to achieve the goal of independence, integration, and civil rights for all people with disabilities. To achieve this goal, NCPEDP uses a “pitchfork” strategy of advocacy, including:

  • Legislative: Working with our representatives to create or enforce laws that will improve the lives of people with disabilities.
  • Legal: Employing the legal process, when the rights of people with disabilities have been violated.
  • Media: Educating the public about disability rights through print, electronic, and social media, and direct outreach.
  • Administrative: Training leaders in the disability rights movement to serve in leadership roles in the government, businesses, and organizations to help influence those establishments and ensure that accessibility and disability rights are engrained in entities throughout our community.

NCPEDP’s advocacy has a history of significant, path breaking achievements, which include:

  1. The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Bill and its introduction in the Rajya Sabha.
  2. Setting up of the Department of Persons with Disabilities under the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.
  3. Ratification of United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD).
  4. Inclusion of disability as a separate category in the Population Census of 2001. This was the first time ever that disabled people got counted in the Census.
  5. Voting process made accessible for disabled people in the General Elections of 2004.
  6. Civil Services opened up for people with disabilities, including IAS, IFS.
  7. Customs Duty on disability goods waived/reduced by the Finance Ministry.
  8. Comprehensive Plan of Action for Inclusion of Children and Youth with Disabilities announced by MHRD.
  9. Inclusion of disability in the social agenda of CII, FICCI and NASSCOM.
  10. National Policy on Universal Electronic Accessibility.